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| << May04, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] dalit news & Maldiavian update |
May04, 2005 - [india Thinkers Net] chro updates 9-18 :May 4th >> |
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[1] Rediff.com/PTI, May 04, 2005, Wednesday Delhi Hospital rape: Lifer for convict A Delhi court on Wednesday sentenced a ward boy to life imprisonment for raping a nurse in a private hospital last December. The convict, Bhura, had on Tuesday offered to marry the victim, who rejected it and said she will rather see him hanged. Soon after the verdict was handed over, she said she was happy with the sentence. Delivering the order in a packed courtroom, Additional Sessions Judge J M Malik handed down maximum punishment to Bhura, who had gouged her eyes and inflicted serious injuries to her eyes, face and neck on December 7, 2003, in the hospital premises. The court, which had convicted Bhura on April 29, had deferred pronouncement of quantum of sentence by a day following Bhura's marriage offer. However, the girl, who was summoned along with her parents by the court to file their reply, not only rejected the proposal, which had triggered a public outcry, but also urged the court to give the convict death sentence. "The convict has committed a horrendous crime, which should not be repeated. After he was found guilty, he is trying to escape punishment with the bogus offer," the girl said in an affidavit filed before the court through her counsel. The court had framed charges against the accused on January 19, 2005. The prosecution examined 21 witnesses to prove its case. http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/04delhi1.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ Rediff.com/PTI, May 03, 2005, Tuesday Rapist seeks to marry victim Minutes before a Delhi court was to pronounce the quantum of sentence to the rapist in the Shanti Mukund Hospital case on Tuesday, he moved an application before it expressing desire to marry the victim. Reading the application of Bhura, Additional Sessions Judge J M Malik asked the victim and her parents to appear before it on Wednesday to file their reply. The court also reserved the pronouncement of the quantum of sentence on Wednesday. . http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/03rape.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ Rediff.com/PTI, May 03, 2005, Tuesday Girl rejects rapist's marriage offer A 22-year-old nurse, who was raped and her eye gauged out by a ward boy, has rejected the rapist's offer to marry her. The girl has demanded that the accused be hanged to death. http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/04delhi.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ Rediff.com/PTI, May 04, 2005, Wednesday Rapist's marriage offer atrocious: NCW Terming the marriage proposal of the rapist in Shanti Mukund case an "atrocious" act, the National Commission for Women on Wednesday said a rapist should not be allowed to make a marriage offer to the victim. "Without prejudicing the court hearing in the case, the commission is of the view that rapists should not be allowed to make a marriage proposal to the victim," NCW member Nirmala Sitaraman said. She said the development in the case will have an implication on all rape-related cases. She added convict Bhura's marriage offer could set a wrong precedence. "The rapist should face the court, bear the punishment that is given to him. It is not for him to make marriage offers. The marriage offer, coming after such a gruesome rape, is atrocious," Sitaraman said. "It is clear that the offer is only a ploy to try and get the punishment diluted. And also to be noted is that the offer came on the very day that the sentence was to be pronounced," she added. The commission had made a strong intervention in the Shanti Mukund episode, giving a number of recommendations to both the Centre and the state governments on how to ensure safety of women in hospitals. http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/04ncw.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [2] New Indian Express, May 04, 2005, Wednesday Authorities chew over Delhi's problem of holy cows Reuters NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has ordered officials to clean up one of the biggest menaces prowling the wide avenues, luscious parks and crowded bazaars of the capital New Delhi -- holy cows. About 35,000 cows and buffaloes roam free in Delhi in the heart of north India's Hindu "cow belt", sharing roads with hordes of monkeys, camels and stray dogs and killing scores of people every year in gorings and traffic accidents. Most are owned by residents who let them graze on grass and rubbish dumps and sell the milk to thousands of illegal dairies supplying New Delhi's 14 million people. Cows are sacred to Hindus and just the rumour of mistreatment can prompt angry mobs to kill people in revenge. Traffic routinely comes to a halt to allow the animals to amble across highways and pedestrians constantly side-step steaming evidence of their passage. Delhi's high court ordered the city authorities to clear the streets more than three years ago and about 30,000 animals have since been picked up, most later dying in state shelters. But angry at the city's failure to finish the job and under pressure from non-government groups, the court last week ordered the municipal authorities to speed up their efforts and gave them a week to convince it they had a workable solution. Flustered officials are in a bind. Many of the strays are owned by people with powerful political or criminal connections and round-up crews sometimes need police guards. Sceptical cow owners are also simply shifting their beasts for now to ride out what they see as a passing campaign. "It's all a ploy to make more money," 35-year veteran Rajesh Sharma told the India Abroad News Service. "These cows and bulls have been roaming around in the streets even before the British came to India. It's just a temporary gimmick." The city is toying with implanting microchips in cows to identify them and record medical history. But the $20 a beast cost has angered owners. Non-government groups say the government just doesn't have the resources to deal with the problem. "If they fail to prevent the movement of cows on city roads, then cattle-catching should be privatised, said Meira Bhatia, a lawyer at the Deli-based NGO Common Cause, which launched the original court case and last week urged faster action. "The authorities have failed to comply with the court's judgment." Meanwhile, the city is also infested with thousands of monkeys blamed for attacking people and stealing medicine from hospitals and files from government offices. The monkeys are too smart for traps, sterilisation is too costly, animal rights groups fight round-ups and they are well-fed and protected by residents who consider them auspicious. Thousands of people pour into temples and leave offerings of food around the city every Tuesday, the monkey-god's day. Delhi plastic surgeons say the biggest source of work among children in the city is treating monkey bites. The monkey problem has become worse since 1978, when India, then the world's largest supplier, banned the exporting of monkeys for medical research. But in Delhi, authorities can do little more than fine people for feeding them and calling in specially trained, larger and more aggressive long-tailed langur monkeys to scare them off. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050503123638&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0& ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [3] Rediff.com/PTI, May 04, 2005, Wednesday Student alleges rape, cousins, friend booked A college student in Pune has lodged a complaint with the police against her cousins and their friend for raping her between March 29 and April 1 in Pimpri and Mumbai. The 19-year-old victim, hailing from Khandala in Satara district, registered a complaint in her home town. The complaint was later transferred to Pune's Nigdi police station. The accused allegedly took the girl, a second year B.Sc. student, to a room in Pimpri and raped her. She was then taken to Mumbai and raped again by the three boys. The three accused have been booked, but no arrests have been made so far. http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/04pune.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ Rediff.com/PTI, May 04, 2005, Wednesday NCW team meets Marine Drive rape victim A National Commission of Women team on Tuesday met the teenaged girl who was raped by a police constable at a Marine Drive police outpost in Mumbai on April 21. http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/may/04mumbai.htm ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [4] The Hindu, May 04, 2005, Wednesday ``Implement Dowry Prohibition Act'' ------------------------------------------------------------ * Establish a committed, sincere machinery to implement the Act * Frame rules to compel men seeking government jobs to furnish information whether they have taken dowry; * If so, whether the dowry has been made over to the wife as contemplated under the Act ------------------------------------------------------------ NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has expressed the anguish that the menace of dowry is still prevalent despite a law enacted in 1961 prohibiting the acceptance of dowry. It directed the setting up of a committed and sincere machinery to implement the Act and the Rules to hasten the eradication of the evil. In ancient times, dowry was given by a woman at the time of marriage as a nest-egg or security in her matrimonial home, the court said. "But in course of time it assumed a different shape and degenerated into a subject of barter, acceptance of the woman as a wife depending on what her parents would pay as dowry, varying with the qualification and the status of the bridegroom's family." A three-Judge Bench, comprising Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, Justice G.P. Mathur and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan, passing the order on a public interest litigation petition directed the Centre and the States to consider framing of rules to compel men seeking government employment to furnish information whether they had taken dowry; if so, whether the dowry had been made over to the wife as contemplated under the Act. The rules could also seek such information from those already in government service. Governments' failure The Bench faulted both the Centre and the States for their failure to put serious effort in the implementation of the Dowry Prohibition Act. "It is not as if the menace posed by dowry has in any way lessened. One can take judicial notice of the fact that cases of dowry harassment are splashed in newspapers almost everyday. When there is failure on the part of the Executive to strictly implement a law like the one in question, enacted to tackle a social problem which has assumed menacing proportions, the court has a duty to step in to give a mandamus," the Bench said. The court asked the State Governments to give wide publicity to Sections 3 and 4 of the Rules providing for the maintenance of lists of presents or gifts to the bride and bridegroom and to appoint a sufficient number of dowry prohibition officers with independent charge in each district of the State concerned; to take steps to step up anti-dowry literacy among the people through lok adalats, radio, television and newspapers. http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/04/stories/2005050404321500.htm ------------------------------------------------------------ New Indian Express, May 04, 2005, Wednesday SC asks govt job seekers to furnish dowry details NEW DELHI: In a bid to improve the notoriously low compliance rate of the dowry prohibition law, the Supreme Court on Tuesday came up with the idea of forcing government employees to make disclosures in this regard. ``We direct the Central and state governments to take steps to ensure that submitting of the list as contemplated by the Act and the rules is strictly implemented,'' said Justice Balasubramanyan, writing the judgement for the bench. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050504001606&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0& ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [5] New Indian Express, May 04, 2005, Wednesday Morality at stake; HC retires 28 lower judiciary judges LUCKNOW: In an attempt to ???cleanse??™ the judiciary at the lower level, a full court of the Allahabad High Court has compulsorily retired as many as 28 judges of the subordinate courts. These judges had been "compulsorily retired" after a committee of five judges of the High Court made a recommendation holding them "guilty of unbecoming conduct", according to highly placed sources here. The committee, which was constituted by the then acting Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in January this year, recently held its collegium in Allahabad where it recommended their compulsory retirement. The lower judiciary judges were reportedly found guilty of doubtful integrity, alcoholism, moral turpitude and professional incompetence, sources said. The service records of over 500 judges of the subordinate courts were scanned by the committee, sources said, adding that several of them had been awarded adverse entries by their superiors. The report of the committee has been sent to the Uttar Pradesh government, according to sources in Allahabad. On being asked about the report, the state Advocate General, Virendra Bhatia said that the state government had no role in the matter. "The High Court is a competent authority to take action against the lower judiciary judges...We have no role in it", Bhatia told PTI. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050504062948&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0& ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [6] New Indian Express, May 04, 2005, Wednesday CBI burdened with too many cases IANS NEW DELHI: A surfeit of high profile cases referred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has overburdened the agency, with many officers complaining they have more on the platter than they can chew. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20050503131935&Page=H&Title=Top+Stories&Topic=0& ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [7] New Indian Express, May 04, 2005, Wednesday Kala azar's black shadow on Dalits IANS PATNA: More than a century after kala azar first struck Bihar in an epidemic form, the disease not only persists but also appears to be discriminating against the poorest of the poor - the Dalits. Apparently 90 percent of the victims belong to the socially marginalized section. Also known as leishmaniasis, the disease is estimated to have killed over 200 Dalits, including children, in the last two years. The chronic and potentially fatal parasitic kala azar is transmitted by sand flies and is characterised by irregular bouts of fever, weight loss, swelling of the spleen, liver and anaemia. It used to earlier affect the backward caste Yadav community and the Bhumihars, a powerful landed upper caste. But the situation seems to have changed. According to research, the disease is most visible in the Musahar and Paswan community due to their poor living conditions. "Kala azar is killing poor Dalits, mostly from the Musahar and Paswan community, more than others in the state," said C.P. Thakur, an expert on the disease and a former central health minister. According to a study by him, the disease breaks out in virulent form every 15 years. It had taken a big toll of human lives in Vaishali, Muzaffarpur, Sitamarhi and Samastipur districts in 1977 and hit again with the same ferocity in 1991-92. The disease may thus strike the state in a big way between 2005 and 07, he warned. Action Aid International India, in a survey last year, found that kala azar had affected the Musahar settlement in the flood-prone Darbhanga district. Dalit activist Misri Manjhi said that out of 250 houses in Musahari Tola (a Dalit settlement) in Goanpura village under Phulwarisharif, 90 were in the grip of kala azar. "Over two dozen people have died due to the disease in the last two years (in the area)," Manjhi said. Kala azar has also hit children in this Dalit settlement. "Around 20 children are suffering from the disease," he said. According to one estimate, over 2,400 people have died of kala azar in the last nine years in Bihar. However, the incidence has fallen from 75,523 cases and 1,417 deaths in 1992 to 12,909 cases and 130 deaths in 2000. State government officials speak of preventive measures like free distribution of medicines, the spraying of pesticides like DDT and doctors visiting affected settlements. But facts speak differently. In Phulwarisharif's Musahari Tola, Dalits suffering from kala azar were not given medicines by the government and no pesticides were sprayed either, people complain. The Patna High Court in April had taken serious note of the fact that the state government had not initiated measures to provide proper medical care to kala azar patients or to fight the disease. In Bihar, Kala azar dates back to 1882 when a disease called 'kala dukh', or black sorrow, was recorded in Purnea district. The disease took an epidemic form in 1891, 1917 and 1933 claiming thousands of lives. The central government hopes to eradicate kala azar by 2007. http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEP20050503070945&Page=P&Title=States&Topic=0& ----------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| << May04, 2005 - [India Thinkers Net] dalit news & Maldiavian update |
May04, 2005 - [india Thinkers Net] chro updates 9-18 :May 4th >> |
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